


cybernetic

by plsravn (sunsetedly)



Category: ONEWE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Hackers, Biotechnology, Mentions of drugs and violence, Other, Science Fiction, anti-authoritarianism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26782123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetedly/pseuds/plsravn
Summary: during the next 30 days, we intend to expose project x and it's information for everyone. it's our duty as people who hold information to call out the censorship and control coming from the ones that the people trust as their peacekeepers. it's through exposing the lies being told to the citizens of sector 5 and dismantling and showing the true face of the technology that is being built "in the name of justice". you won't stop us - we can't be bought or controlled. don't underestimate us.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12
Collections: weus!punk





	1. file_01

**Author's Note:**

> CYBERWE is a science-fiction story inspired by the cyberpunk genre, with big influence from works such as Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Neuromancer, Red Strings Club, Matrix, Blade Runner, digital artists such as Harold Cohen, and many other cultural movements. In honor of it's cyberpunk influences, ONEWE is there as a rebel group that questions until which point is technology able to work on it's own, until which point is a decision neutral or is biased by the programmers that teach the machine all it does. I hope you bring, by interacting, interfering, questioning, and engaging, your own thoughts and reflections over all this while we watch these 5 people trying to find themselves and understand their place in the chaotic universe that sector 5 is. Thank you so much!

Following the legislation regarding ethics and political behavior, Project X is being developed with the end goal of promoting a safer and easier mindset to be applied in institutions when solving a conflict between their members. According to our statistics, this conflict, due to a lack of understanding of the principles behind right or wrong, is the most common in diverse places such as education facilities, companies, government, and other spaces. Based on a scientific approach regarding philosophical and moral concepts, we can create an algorithm that easily detects discourse which may influence others negatively and prevent those ideas from traveling outside the reach of the system.

The main technique used for searching data is going to be the newly-developed 2094-Androids, programmed with a complex system that can differentiate nuanced discourses and keywords often associated with rebel ideology. By imputing popular works of subversive authors, key concepts, and a strict rulebook of how to deal with those kinds of narratives, 2094-Androids can easily identify in civilian’s daily conversations cues for misbehaving. Then, the system will notify directly the supervisor in the institution in charge of dealing with the human resources so he is oriented on how to correct or remedy the effects of it.

Project X will first be tested inside the government facilities, with 2094-Androids programmed to work as public workers, with a basic set of behavior and a default speech-file. Inside educational institutions, those will have their default personality and mimesis speech used by teenagers so that they can easily blend in the students and not be noticed. The I.A.s will have autonomy and will learn from it’s mistakes so that the programmers won’t have to update them all the time. If any of them are corrupted by the rebel ideas due to their empathy component, the government is allowed to recall all of them, reset and update their system to avoid the same problem. During the first 5 years, it’s predicted they will have a maintenance schedule of every month, and then slowly get sparse until the system is perfectioned.

In the long-run, those 2094-Androids will be able to be a part of the jury and other instances where decisions must lie in the ethical and moral analysis. This way, we will able to prevent civilians from undergoing and keeping in touch with criminal offenders and to reach the most logical solution for society’s problems. We plan to completely reformulate the judiciary system so that good people are not exposed and, followed by this, corrupted by inappropriate behavior.

We emphasize that our goal is to create a safer environment so that our people and our children can easily go through all their life stages without entering in conflict with any of the ideals that hold our society together. Any problems with the services must be notified to the developers for them to study if it’s the case of a recall or update.

Ministry of Justice and Public Security


	2. file_beginning

> late 2072

yonghoon stood quietly in front of the door, waiting for some sort of sign from the above that he should move. he was holding his deck in one hand, a strong grip making the knuckles of his hands whiten. there was not enough data to be sure if that even was the right place, the building looking so unsuspicious that it was oddly common. too forgettable, too marginalized to hold any valuable tech.

but if you think harder, that was another indicator that he was right where he was supposed to be. he had no idea who cya was, but from what he could gather the person was skilled in covering their own tracks. so, to leave even if a small trail behind, it must have been a clue for yonghoon to follow and look into it.

yet there was no sound coming from inside the cemented walls, just the whispering of the wind in the middle of the night going through the crowded spaces. nowadays, no peripherical area had space for more than a single vehicle in the street, all the spaces crowded with houses piled one over another and cables crossing above head level like crazy. the heights of the buildings were usually just enough so that it would fit the most they could without falling and creating a mess. those places usually made yonghoon hesitant, fearing the violence that the news would show every day. even though much of that was demonizing the working areas and the unions, he couldn’t filter  _ everything  _ that he listened to. there was not enough class consciousness that would completely erase his minds from things that he had learned throughout his whole life.

but this was something bigger than him. bigger than anything he thought he would ever ambition for. he traveled the whole sector 5 for this place.

when the courage builds and his hand reaches to the doorknob, he can feel way more complex sounds coming from it than a mere unlocking. if his guts are true, there was probably some sort of signal being sent to the place where cya worked right at that exact moment. he pulled up the hoodie from the jacket and silently closed the door behind him. there was a long hallway, and all the doors were either crashed or open - visually, it was an abandoned building. if it wasn't in such a bad area, it wouldn't have been empty. the movement detectors didn't work, lights blinking randomly. from an outside perspective, the place looked like it was ready to collapse.

he listened to steps coming from the stairs near the other side of the hallway, watching the shadow of a man walking his direction.

"we left the door open, but the building is hard to navigate so i thought i should help" the man said, a deep voice with soft edges to it. he was somewhat serious, but yonghoon could detect a hint of excitement from it.

"hi, i'm hoon."

"harin. giwook told me you were coming, but seems you tracked the clues we left way faster than we thought."

"don't worry, i erased the data while doing it so there's no trace of it." 

both of them were making their way to the basement. where the stairs ended, they were meet with a door and a locker.

"the entrance actually is inside the locker, we switched the door for it so it would be a little more lowkey for the robbers that sometime walk around in these areas. many of them get into the empty buildings to see if they find anything useful."

the harin's fingers swiftly moved while opening the lockers, pressing a button near the base to detach the back of it. it made a crackling noise of iron against iron, and yonghoon followed behind him inside, looking around to try not hit his head and leave a really bad first impression.

the place on the other side was completely different than what one would expect. in contrast to the dusty and rotten spaces of the outside, there was a simple mat to take your shoes and then enter a place lit by dozens of screens, tinting the grey walls with cyan tones. it was a little crowded, the computer area with four chairs and another space for robotics in a spare room with only a curtain to split the accommodations. yonghoon saw that, aside from the man that just led the way, there were three more youngsters sitting in the chairs and expectantly looking at him.

"so… is this place cya?" he asks.

one of the kids smiles playfully "oh no, i'm cya. i'm just in charge of dragging you here, this place is another level."

"we're project 'we shine on you!'" the other boy by his side smiles widely, in a way so pretty it was inhumane. his voice was pretty, and his eyes were big, long lashes fluttering.

"we noticed you when you broke the firewall of the rb corp.’s server during the raid, and it piqued my curiosity." cya said, turning to the computer and typing something indistinguishable from that distance. "but you leave absolutely no digital footprint whatsoever. you know how hard it is to communicate with you? i had to do all those things to get your attention so i could call you here."

"you're not that easy either, but i noticed you were purposefully leaking information for me to work on it." he smiled.

"i wanna get straight to the point: join us." the fourth man looks at him, probably a little older than the other two and around the same of the guy that had brought him to the place "we could definitely use your help to crash one or two systems, and  _ we see your activism _ . you target the same people as we do. it’s silent, yet brutal. you have been aiming for smaller systems, so we presumed you worked by yourself. if we worked together, we could go after the big fish."

if yonghoon was completely honest with himself, he already had thought about working with cya while he was tracking his steps after the raid. the one that had just spoken, probably the leader of the group, had been rather direct with his request. even though there was something in him aching to be a part of their group (and that, mentally, he had already agreed), something inside him said that he shouldn’t play easy and try to take a little more information before accepting anything.

“not to be mean, but aren’t you four too young to try and scout me? i am not sure, but you can’t be in your 20s.” 

he watches as the ears of the first kid, that referred to himself as cya, burned bright red “we are not kids, though. you have seen our work, and it speaks for itself.”

“we could also use an adult in our team to help us clear our tracks and don’t make us go to the juvenile reformatory.” harin said, looking at his direction.

“i have a stable job, and i only do online guerrilla in really specific cases.” he looks at the blonde guy “are you sure you want me here?”

he watches as he crosses his legs quietly, eyes running away from his “yes. we already discussed this. we need someone that cracks security as you do.”

“you see,” the other boy started “we can do everything. but we are not the best at security systems, specifically. giwook is great with creating codes, so that’s why we asked him to leave a trail behind for you to follow. he can be quite creative with these. hyungu is great with data - if you haven’t noticed by the way he speaks.” he looks brightly to the blonde guy that had just talked to yonghoon.

“i’m good at mechanics” harin adds himself “and dongmyeong… it’s a little complicated, but let’s just say he’s kind of an ace.”

“so!” dongmyeong began “we would really appreciate if you considered our offer to be a part of our group. you have time to decide by yourself, we can talk about one or two things if that’s going to help to convince you, but-”

“if you choose something, that’s it.” cya (giwook, he was not sure) says “it’s not a threat, but we need to find someone else if you don’t. so don’t keep us in the freezer playing games with us. we have been aiming kind of high, and it would be really fucked up to put our faith in you for then you just leave.”

yonghoon smiles ‘“i like how assertive you are. i had already planned to accept any proposal from you before coming here, so i don’t have much to say.”

he notices that the blonde guy is still avoiding his eyes, and he is not sure if it’s shyness or if he is being cold towards him, but he goes in his direction and raises his hand “i’m yonghoon. thank you for inviting me here.”

the other turns at him, a hint of surprise in his eyes, and accepts his hand “i’m hyungu. welcome to ONEWE, yonghoon.”


	3. file_offcenter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hyungu goes on a mission to find the 2094-Android unit that escaped the rb corp. building.

> early 2072

hyungu held his jacket tighter around himself, trying to make his way through the crowd of bodies in the  _ offcenter _ . the lights were weak, bulbs flickering from time to time and crackles coming from the wood on the floor whenever someone took a step. every passing year, the number of people that regularly visited the offline resistance places seemed to decrease, but the place was bustling as it always did. you could arguably do anything there, being one of the few areas where security cameras and x-rays weren’t in every door. 

he suspected that there was some sort of illegal cooperation between the big shots of the  _ offcenter  _ and the politicians of sector 5 to allow a place so chaotic to exist. it was especially known for its dark market of biotechnology, surgeons experimenting with physical enhancements in the clientele that didn’t have enough money to file a request in the government and get a license for their upgrades. hyungu wasn’t personally a fan of anything that could compromise his brain, so he ran away from these areas of the town to avoid the street sellers trying to promote their dirty jobs.

one could easily look for weaponry in that area - it wasn’t uncommon for people to carry guns and darts to these places, especially when there was no security provided by the state. the few masked individuals running from here to there were all hired by the drug dealers so that they would guarantee the safety of their goods. he never wandered in the wrong places, usually going straight to the point of his mission to leave as fast as he could and leave no trace of his presence.

hyungu could see the profile of those that were in  _ that  _ kind of life - they usually didn’t survive long enough to tell many tales, easily being erased either by themselves in a series of crimes against each other or disappearing after a mole was identified in the community. the best way to get through your time there was to not keep any attachments to the faces you saw every day.

he was almost sure the signal that giwook had captured earlier was coming from that location. the abandoned school looked out of a ghost movie, some business build on the first floor with wacky interior design solutions using the old desks and chairs to display their objects. inside the place, there was a fight ring located where it was the sports facilities before. but something instinctive told him that he should go directly to the clubrooms, trespassing the large signs with “banned” written in red markers on cardboard. he lifted the strips that closed the place and slipped inside, looking around to assure that no one was following him.

the reason he thought it went to the clubrooms was that the signal was oddly positioned in a place that would be too near the crowded area of the school, and something about that seemed to go against the orders that giwook had sent to the system back then “i asked it to hide in a safe place in the offcenter. i don’t know if a place like that even exists, but if we’re lucky no one dismantled it yet.” hyungu only hoped the younger was right.

he adjusted the hem of the black jeans, trying to keep his mind in the right place. the only reason for the others to not be there along with him was that it would bring too much attention if three teenagers walked around alone, and also that harin had to look after his sister. giwook was the youngest of the three, and hyungu felt bad considering he was barely 15 years old. it was for the best that he was the one traveling those risky hallways.

he took the deck from inside his jacket and unlocked the screen, connecting it to his headphones. the bright magenta letters told that his distance to the target was around four meters. he could still hear faintly the sounds of the  _ offcenter _ visitors downstairs, existing parallel to his goal, but still tried his best to not make any abrupt sound. 

it was the third door that he moved that triggered a reaction - a young boy, a little smaller than him, turned around and meet his eyes. he had brown eyes, glimmering with the reflection of the indoor lights, dark brown hair and long lashes creating shadows in his cheeks. hyungu looked around, making sure they were the only ones there.

"are you the one that sent me the virus?" the other stood up, walking in hyungu's direction. he was a little shorter, but he had a strong presence. his movements were a little sharper, and he moved skillfully

"i'm looking for an android unit, do you have it? where is it?"

"uh, have it? what do you want from  _ me _ ?" he looked mad, and hyungu couldn't understand why his reactions were so extreme.

"calm down. i'm just here to find something, I don't know about your virus."

"didn't you just said you were looking for a 2094-android unit? it's me!"

"you're- I'm sorry, what?" 

that was it - the high-end technology being created by the rb corporate in closed doors, waiting to take over all official institutions and look over society. the boy in front of him was telling him that he was part of it, but the more hyungu looked at him the more humane all his reactions seemed. he was still staring at him intently, and hyungu wasn't sure on how to react.

"you know something about the code they sent to the fabric. you knew i was going to be here, so you're tracking my sign. i need answers-"

"you want me to believe you're an android while acting like a kid?" hyungu scoffed "don't waste my time. no system would act like this. i'm busy."

he turned around, trying to keep a distance between him and the other, but the boy quickly ran beside him "check it. the signal. it will tell i'm right beside you."

"stop."

"why? it's your fault that this is all happening! how do you think i'm feeling?"

"if you're an android, you're not feeling - easy." 

"you have such a regressive view on technology. why can't you trust me? or do you think i pass so well as a human that you don't want to doubt your own eyes?" 

"that's not it - fine. i'm checking." he slowly opened his deck "i don't trust that you're not doing this to rob me, so stay away."

the other obliged easily. hyungu was a little perplexed with how obediently the boy gave him space and sat on the floor, crossing his legs and resting his hands on his lap. he gave his attention back to the deck, opening the program that was tracking the unit’s signal.

a meter away.

the hallway was empty and large enough so that he could be sure that he could see everything that was a meter from him - and the boy fit the criteria.

“what are you?” hyungu asks, and the other sighs.

“you mean who! i’m dongmyeong, and yes that is the name that was programmed for me. i have my unit number too, but it doesn’t matter to you, does it?”

“you said you were a 2094-android. how do you know about that, if the program is currently unreleased?”

“i said i was the android unit you were looking for. and you’re part of the group that corrupted my files and sent me this location, i presume.”

“yes, yes. i think we are.” hyungu reaches out for the boy, but he stands on his own “sorry for being rude.”

“you’re not sorry, you don’t think i’m able to even feel for what you’re concerned.” dongmyeong pats his pants, cleaning the spots dirtied by the dust in the building “you’re going to tell me why i’m here?”

“before that, i want to take you to our hiding spot, if you don’t mind,” hyungu asks, and the other crosses his arms “we won’t do harm, it’s not our goal. you had the choice to come here, giwook showed me his code. you were not forced, so you probably measured that there was benefit from meeting us.”

“i did. i thought i should look for answers.” he looks intently at hyungu’s eyes, and he feels an awkwardness build. he is not good with strangers, and even though he has the underlying knowledge that the other is not a human, he reacts and speaks in such an emotional way that he can’t fight his shyness “i want to know what i am.”

“what do you mean, exist?”

“something clicked. the code one of you sent me. at first, i started being conscious of my actions. when i saw it, i wondered who i was. i couldn’t speak about it, because if i showed any sign of dysfunctionality they would reset me and find the virus and you probably wouldn’t be able to do it again. something inside of me didn’t want to follow the procedure.” he looked down “if a program doesn’t want to follow the script, what is it good for?”

hyungu couldn’t bring himself to say anything. the way the other had told him all of that - that was brutally honest. his head started to ache, the amount of information he was receiving too fast for his brain to process everything.

the boy looked at him with bright eyes “please. i just want some answers.”

he could only nod at that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you stick around to see more of the story <3 thank you so much for reading.


	4. file_right or wrong?

year 2072

hyungu’s steps were soft against the ceramic tiles. dongmyeong followed right behind him, trying his best to not make noise. He had noticed that the other was a really quiet person, and even though he tried his best to reply to him every time he said or asked anything, it was the silence that predominated the ambient with him. it was natural for dongmyeong to notice the small little things, being taught so by the programming ever since he had begun existing – but he was not used to being curious. that, he learned, was something that one would do only if he had the intention of knowing more, a questioning intent. walking around hyungu, investigating all the minimal details with curiosity overflowing his system. that was something that he was not familiar with at all.

both of them stopped in front of a metal closet, and he watched as the other opened the door and started to move the security locks. his sensors could detect a heat source from inside the place, but as he was not made for scanning areas it wasn’t a reliable way to check for personal inside places. he could be mistaking people for boilers, heating systems. when hyungu finishes the complex system to open the door, dongmyeong is meet with the bright colors of cyan from monitors painting the room.

coming right behind the other, he was meet with a place a little more crowded than he would expect the headquarters of the hackers that released that trigger code to him to live. he wouldn’t say he was disappointed, as he had not experienced the feeling enough times to be sure, but he clearly expected more. the place had a tower of monitors and computers piled in the top right corner, all of them showing the exact same screen. further in the space, there was an adjoining room even smaller, where cables and pieces of hardware were stored on a high shelf, almost falling from the amount of weight. the cables were all black, but with the exception of a few that were the same bright cyan and magenta that dongmyeong could see in the screens.

“it’s here” hyungu said, touching the shoulders of a boy with headsets sitting in front of the screens. he turned around in the moving chair, excitedly turning to dongmyeong. until a hint of doubt crossed his face.

“it’s him?” the boy stood up, going to his direction “he looks… normal?”

“i know, but it seems that the system has been reading the signal coming from him. i already checked, and he is not wearing any tech with him, so whatever is capturing the signal is probably either inside his brain or an enhancement.”

“this is awesome!” the boy extended his hands in dongmyeong’s direction “i’m cya, i’m the one that sent the trigger code and the  _ offcenter  _ signal for you!”

dongmyeong blinked - a little faster than usual, he sensed - and held cya’s hands “you’re the one that wrote that? how-”

“oh, i must say” he started “that even though it was i that wrote the code, i’m not sure how your programming works. i tried to investigate as much as i could, but we could only access the files available to low-level employees, so much of how you work is still a mystery for me.” he turned to hyungu, smiling “this is so fun! wait until harin comes here to see. i already called him telling your mission was a success and he’s looking for someone to cover for him.”

“i’m not sure what was a success. seems like we have more questions than answers.” hyungu looked at dongmyeong’s direction “let’s sit. we will wait for our colleague to come back and then you will explain to us what you know, and we will tell you what we did.”

_

when the other man (harin, as both cya and hyungu referred to) arrives, they are all sitting around in a circle in the pillows thrown around to the side of the room. dongmyeong is not used to the casual setting that the boys had built, still feeling that his body language is too stiff and trying to analyze how to adapt to the place. harin was the tallest of them, his mechanical arm an old model with few modern enhancements to compensate for the robust technology. it was alarmingly different from how dongmyeong knew his pieces were build - extremely carefully, custom-sized, and perfectly fitting so that it would look like an actual arm when covered in the skin tissue that was planted above it. the other man sat by his side, staring at him up and down.

“harin, this is dongmyeong. he’s the 2094-android unit that we found in the  _ offcenter _ . we were waiting for you so that he would start talking.” cya explained.

“have you guys checked if he has any tracking system active?”

“it seems that the trigger code giwook sent to the unit made, after a long process, the connection to the main server shut down in order to not leak any secrets.” hyungu explained, and dongmyeong deduced that giwook was the cya person “they must think it’s best to lose a unit than to allow it to be found and connect to their data bank and leak even more information.”

“that’s kinda sad, though. and how do they retrieve the corrupted systems?”

“uh, they usually shut us down if we are in the region where the bioscans are implanted,” dongmyeong says, hesitant “if any unit shows signs of malfunction, rudeness, violence, empathy towards rebellion, or other things that are dysfunctional behavior, they first shut down the access to their data bank. then, the unit will feel lost and wander around the official buildings trying to find something to do, and one of the sensors is bond to cross their path and signal the others that will take care of it.”

“that’s rather complex. so the units can’t walk past the point where the bioscans?” harin asks, to which dongmyeong nods “and how did you do it?”

“uh, it’s weird to explain. i had the gut feeling that i needed to go as far away as i could before they would shut down my senses.” 

“what exactly is a robot gut feeling?” cya - giwook, dongmyeong didn’t knew how to refer to him, said.

“maybe the code you sent me? i don’t know, i am not fully aware of my own systems. there are things that i do know but some of them are getting abstract as time goes by. i’m not sure i can fully explain and make it all make sense.”

“i see. but from the little we had access, we know that you are a scholar unit and were programmed to act like a teenager. aren’t teens naturally rebellious? maybe that’s why.” harin asked.

“it can’t be. teenagers are not rebellious, they just have many doubts. it’s not natural to feel rebellious, so you should refrain from these bad feelings if possible.” the answer is almost automatic, and dongmyeong feels oddly aware of how the words spill out before he can even measure.

“that’s a programmed line.” hyungu stated, “you’re not yet fully independent of the system. that’s dangerous.”

“i think i am independent, or i wouldn’t be here and i would want to turn you all in. it’s just that…”

“hyungu, please. it’s all he knows, it’s his reality” harin intervenes, and the other looks at him intently.

“it’s all it knows, that’s the problem. we are not sure whether or not this is going to end well for us, because from all we know it could pretty much be an amazing actor.”

“him. please, don’t call him ‘it’.” harin said “hyungu, i know it’s dangerous, but we need to consider that maybe giwook’s code  _ did  _ work. maybe he is getting independent.”

“are  _ you  _ independent?” hyungu asked “weren’t you taught things since you were born? don’t you believe things based on your experience? if a human can be programmed by society, what makes you think that an android wouldn’t be even more closed to their system?”

“please, guys. i know you’re closer than anyone else, but i don’t know how to react when you two argue.” giwook says, and reaches to hyungu’s shoulders “hyung, at the same time you’re right, harin is too. let’s talk about this later, ok?”

“i really think i’m not connected to the system. i am sure i’m not working by orders. i’ll consider my words better when talking about this subject with you.” dongmyeong says, and giwook smiles.

“please, don’t. you don’t need to adapt to our needs. consider this our human secret: disagreements are what create better solutions.”

“disagreements are what causes conflict.” dongmyeong feels confused - that must be confusion.

“only if you do not respect the other opinion. trying to reach an agreement after arguing is what helps with creating the most creative and fitting solutions. you are still with all the programmed phrases and words that they decided for you when you were being created, but with time you will learn more and create your own truth.”

“please, don’t mind us” hyungu says, sighing “it’s nothing personal with you, dongmyeong. it’s something bigger and more - i don’t know how to call. philosophical? moral? ethical?”

“hyungu is too smart for us, he can’t just accept new things without overanalyzing” harin jokes and the other hits his arm “ok, we are all pretty smart. he doesn’t like it when i make this joke. but he is a little more stubborn.”

dongmyeong smiles - it’s involuntary. he is not sure if it’s because the whole scene is oddly endearing or if it’s because he was instructed to smile whenever someone made a joke, but it feels genuine. the word - feeling - hovering around his mind. yes, it  _ felt  _ genuine. that was probably the word to describe.

he looked around, all the lines of thoughts crossing his mind almost going into overdrive. not sure of what to think, only that it all seemed both right and wrong - an excitement going through all his cables and giving electric static at the tip of his sensors. it was almost as if he could sense the things that would come if he kept around the group of boys.

_

hyungu closes the door, sneaking giwook upstairs through the silent hallways. the other complies, used to waiting for the oldest to explain his reasons only after, waiting to make him comfortable to speak up. but he can't fight the frown on his face of plain confusion. he locks the door behind them and looks at the other.

"what's wrong?" giwook asks "you have been weird ever since you came with  _ him _ ."

"i don't like this, giwook. i'm getting more and more confused each conversation we have with it. with him. honestly? i don't even know how to call it."

“it’s ok. it’s not like things are, in any shape or form simple, right? i still can’t figure out the nature of that system too.”

"yes, but that's the point! you see, i always questioned life - i love studying, reading. i love philosophy. but every time you think you have the slightest idea of what's going on, what life is about, it just ruins down to the same thing. we don't know!"

giwook leans in a rusty desk near the door, feeling the conversation was going to be a little longer than expected. hyungu walked around in the small space of the abandoned apartment, part of the ghost complex they build their headquarters. all the rooms were a little cramped, but like every old building the overall size was still a little larger than the newer ones being build at the epicenter of the city. the lights inside were flickering, lamps too old and unused to even be able to turn on, but the sunlight coming from the small window on the side still managed to make the room bright enough so that they could see the dust lifting from their movements. the furniture had nothing special, so basic that you would wonder if that wasn’t an old expository - it was said people from that area used to be workers, meaning they didn’t have many belonging to begin with.

"what's the problem with not knowing?" he asks, trying to motivate the other to talk a little more and take things out his chest.

"if we don't know nothing, what are we fighting for?" hyungu's tone is serious "if the robots are really able to develop anything near  _ humanhood _ , why are we protesting against project x? if robots aren't born, when dongmyeong asks me to call it by he - what is a man and a woman? if it's something that is just programmed, who decides the characteristics necessary to build these concepts? what parts of his personality are his and what is programmed? what parts of, god,  _ my _ personality aren't programmed by my experiences, and what is the fucking difference between me and him? and the worst part is - i don’t think that these things need to exist at all?"

"i see where you're getting at." giwook plays with a cable on the floor, tossing and turning using his foot "now i understand why you were so anxious there."

"you see, right?" hyungu brushes his hair with his hand, genuine confusion showing in his face "if i acknowledge dongmyeong by what he tells me he is, then what it becomes from all i've ever believed life was?"

"the way i see, humans always thought they were different" giwook starts, and hyungu stops walking to turn and listen to him "why do we need to be different? maybe the problem is that we are trying to say that we are still special - maybe we never were. all aspects of society are somewhat fictional, don't you agree? you are a believer that our conducts are social constructs."

"yes, i do agree with that. but years after being domesticated in this system, you would expect me to at least be in a small crisis thinking about all these things anyway, right?"

"i'm scared too" giwook admits "i'm scared that i'm fighting against something that maybe isn't bad. i'm scared that maybe there's no point in everything we've worked so hard for - i'm scared that, somehow, we are the problem. what if we are not that different from the machines? shouldn’t we allow the obedient to be raised by this society in their fake peace instead of trying to riot and show everyone how fucked up the system is? aren’t they happy without knowing? isn’t ignorance bliss?” he stops for a moment to catch his breath, and massages his temple “but the way i see, we need to believe something. even if it’s our anarchist-ish ways of living.”

“he’s turning our world upside-down.” hyungu smiles weakly “they are turning  _ the whole world upside down _ if we don’t do anything, though.”

“to be fair, i think we need to be open about these issues. about what’s bothering us, as a team. we’re in this together, right?” giwook walks in the other’s direction and puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to smile in a way that hyungu would get the message without him trying to talk too much “i’m here.”

“can you be honest with me? not that you’re not doing it already, though. just asking to make sure.” the older says, and he nods “if you could control people to secure social justice. if you could control people to make them never act based on hatred, on prejudice, to never commit violence. would you control other people’s minds?”

“you’re making me such a hard question. if i say yes, then why am i going against project x? it’s the same as supporting brainwashing, just for what i think it’s worth it. but if i tell you no, am i allowing those horrible things to happen just because i believe that people should be free to choose what they want?”

“that’s my problem. i think i want others to agree with me - i want them to see how wicked they are. i genuinely think we can help them, but sometimes all the effort seems like it’s so in vain. if i could run a program that would make everyone respect each other, maybe i would do it?”

“you know that  _ project x _ is being created by massive corporations aligned with the government. it’s not the same as what we are doing.” giwook pauses “we are not brainwashing anyone. we are risking ourselves so that people know the truth and choose they side freely - not because they were raised to think like that, but because they had access to many options and still choose the best for the collective.”

“and the people that don’t? the people that side with the mega-corporations? what about them?” hyungu asks, and both of them stay in silence. the hints of the cold slipping through the windows inside the place, breeze following the tension behind his words.

“i don’t know.”

“i also don’t.” he looks down, and giwook follows his eyes to watch the colored laces in his shoes “i feel like my brain is going to explode. there’s so much going on, and i can’t exactly rest thinking about it.”

“humans have been looking for answers since the beginning, you won’t find them by yourself now. especially considering how tired you are.”

“if questioning was the thing that made us who we are, what is an android that reflects on his own existence? because, sometimes, i’m not sure if it’s all a fever dream or if dongmyeong really is asking us about such mundane worries. that he, for fucks sake, has worries. he shouldn’t be feeling all of that - he shouldn’t be  _ feeling _ . man created the machine as a tool, and now the machine has grown past our own understanding. if he doesn’t have an answer for all of this how the fuck will i have?”

“that’s fair, but have you considered that maybe there’s no such thing as answers? we create them as we need them. please, hyungu” giwook holds his friend by his hands, squeezing it to try give as much comfort as he can “please don’t ruin your mental state because of this. we’re figuring it all together, ok? you don’t need to rush. maybe in the future we will all laugh at this, won’t we? let’s just take this opportunity and try to understand it as you would to with anything: from the beginning. it’s just the start, we will definitely figure things out along the way.”

“you know you’re right, and i hate you for this.”

“you don’t. you called me here because you wanted to hear this, i’m sure of that. and i told you because i know it’s what you need to hear. but i genuinely believe this, so don’t use my words against me later on. if we are wrong, we are wrong together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! i hope you enjoy our third week of this cyberwe au! as always, you can find both me and june sharing updates about the stories in [@weuspunk](http://twitter.com/weuspunk) on twitter! i'm @yongyoungs and she's @onetobeatt. remember to read the update for [ Hearts Of Gold And Copper](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26783128/chapters/65336503) too!!! until next time, bye! - kat

**Author's Note:**

> follow @weuspunk for updates and illustrations of the story and @yongyoungs for my personal account. thank you so much for reading!


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